updated 12:40 am EDT, Thu March 22, 2012

Adobe Photoshop CS6 gets test version

Adobe gave a peek at its future suite Thursday through a limited-time public beta of Photoshop CS6. The early version shows off a new, dark interface with more consistency, presets, and both redesigned tools like crop as well as returning features like PDF presentations. A new Content-Aware Patch lets artists grab a sample and then use it to patch the affected area while blending pixels to create a more natural look.

A new graphics engine, Mercury, gives hardware acceleration for features like cropping, warp transforms, liquify, and oil paint filters. The new code is more efficient and can save quietly in the background, auto-save, and even auto-recover.

Photographers get touches like adaptive wide angle control, blur controls to help induce effects like tilt-shift, and a new Adobe Camera RAW that has local controls for highlights and shadows, black-and-white, noise reduction, and white balance. Video is now a feature of the regular Photoshop app and includes group layers.

Using the beta requires signing in with an Adobe ID. Although positioned as protecting purchases, it's also intended to prevent use of the beta longer than the official period.